17 Easy Ways To Declutter And Organize Every Cabinet Drawer In Your Home

Even homes that seem to have it totally together, without a thing cluttering the countertops or coffee tables, can carry a dark secret. Sometimes, all that mess is just concealed in the drawers. In the kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, and so on, many folks struggle to keep their drawers organized and clutter-free. This can happen for a few reasons, like when people use drawers as stash piles for all the things they don't know what to do with because they don't have the best drawer organizing system or they're in desperate need of a purge. 

The advice you've probably heard over and over again is to get rid of what you can and simply organize the drawers, but it's easier said than done. To make organizing all the drawers in your home more straightforward, we've put together some tips, like tossing out unused children's toys, finally getting rid of your mismatched socks, and using drawer dividers to get your home in order.

Sure, you always throw out old condiments from the fridge and check the top of your cans for their expiration dates, but do you give your cosmetic products the same treatment? Body washes, lotions, ointments, and more have expiration dates, too, and they can take up a ton of room in your bathroom drawers if you hold onto them. Throw away any products that you've had open for more than two years and any you've had for over three years, even if they're unopened.  

Nearly every household has a junk drawer. While we aren't going to tell you to get rid of it entirely, you should try finding permanent homes for some of the objects you have in there. Tools should go in toolboxes, for instance, and stamps, envelopes, and stationery supplies can head to your home office. Spare bobby pins, hair elastics, and lip balms can make their way to your bathroom or vanity, and spare or broken chargers should be recycled. What you're left with is a manageable, decluttered junk drawer. 

If you find yourself constantly searching for a sock pair but never seem to find them, it's time to have a recruitment meeting and see what you're actually working with. Some socks are lost to the goblins in your washer and dryer, and others are abandoned in a gym bag that will never be seen again. So, do a load of laundry with every sock you can find in the house, check every suitcase, go through your drawers, and ensure each sock has a mate. At the end, get rid of any solo stragglers. 

When you find that one food storage container is big enough to hold another or that you can stack five cooking pots together, it's a natural impulse to stack away. But this can also create a leaning tower of, well, everything. Try not to stack more than two or three items in a nest. After going through the trouble of getting the one you need, it's hard to make sure they all go back in the same neat order each time. 

For those who need a little flexibility in their drawer organization, you can't go wrong with a pegboard drawer system. These allow you to use removable pegs to configure the space easily and as often as needed. You can purchase a pegboard drawer insert or cut any pegboard to size to fit your drawers. This is ideal for kitchen drawers that need to hold objects of many different shapes and sizes or any space that has fluxing levels of inventory. 

Remember that tube of mascara you bought but only got halfway through before you decided you didn't like it and bought a new one? Or what about the lipstick you used before you found your dream shade and haven't reached for since? If you decided to keep the one you disliked as a backup for emergencies, now is the time to toss it. Makeup expires, dries out, and is susceptible to icky bacteria, especially if it's been opened and partially used. Now, it just takes up room in your bathroom and vanity drawers.

Drawers full of linens can look completely disastrous, even if you don't have all that many bed sheets, towels, and tablecloths. One easy way to restore order is to choose a single folding method for all of the linens. Follow the Marie Kondo folding method, or roll them like burritos as a space-saving measure. No matter what technique you use, just be sure to use it across the board. 

If you have plenty of storage space in your dresser drawers, then feel free to skip this step. If you're like 99% of people, though, go ahead and transfer your out-of-season clothes to a bin that fits under the bed. That way, they're accessible if need be but do not take up drawer space, leaving you without room for the clothes you need on the daily. In the summer, store sweaters, thick socks, scarves, and hats away. In winter, swap them for sun dresses, shorts, and swimsuits. 

The deep drawers that many modern kitchens have been outfitted with are wonderful and so handy, but it's also very easy to toss pots, pans, bowls, and everything but the kitchen sink inside. Plate and lid stands can make a huge difference in maximizing this space and keeping the area orderly. Take down the dimensions of the drawer and buy some stands — they're typically available in a variety of materials, including metal, plastic, and wood. 

Bedside drawers are often tasked to hold far too many objects, and many times, we repurpose them into a personal junk drawer for odd pieces of mail, abandoned craft projects, and paperbacks. Reclaim the nightstand space and only store items you legitimately need to keep by the bed: a pair of glasses, a notepad, pens, maybe a bottle of lotion, a sleep mask, and very little else. Most other things taking up space there have another home somewhere else in the house. 

Many people love their single-use coffee pods, and we'd guess many people also have a drawer full of them scattered in a drawer below their coffee maker. Keeping them in their cardboard boxes takes up a lot of room, but letting them roll around loose can also be a mess, making it difficult to find the specific variety you're looking for. That's where a coffee pod drawer organizing insert comes in! With this, you'll always be able to find the right pod for about $24 on Amazon.

Storing your knives in the drawer instead of a bulky knife block that takes up countertop space is a great choice, but you don't want knives with open blades just floating around in the drawer, as it can be very easy to hurt yourself when you're reaching for another utensil. We love this vertical knife stand on Amazon for $8.23, which keeps the blades shielded and prevents them from dulling and denting. It also adds helpful storage to your kitchen drawer.

If you've already made the jump from a spice shelf in the cupboard to a spice drawer, you're already well ahead of the curve since these allow you to clearly see the labels rather than picking up each one to examine it from a higher or lower shelf. But they can still get jumbled up and unorganized, sliding around if placed in the drawer without any system. These slanted shelves (available on Amazon for $26) take care of those issues, so you'll never grab the cayenne instead of the paprika again.

Folding and rolling your clothes will only get you so far in keeping your dresser drawers in order. Drawer inserts and bins can be the thing that makes them much more manageable and convenient. Try ordering a set with multiple box sizes to configure them however you like. This will keep you from losing your shirts in a sea of pajama pants and make it easier to know where to put your freshly laundered, folded clothes. 

Once you've paired your socks up and eliminated any loners, you might find that your sock basket is no longer cutting it. We love these honeycomb drawer inserts on Amazon for $14 that keep your sock drawer in perfect order. This way, you'll always know where your lucky pair of socks is. If you end up with extra combs, you can use the spares for other small items such as scarves, belts, and underwear, or use them in your vanity drawer to sort makeup and skincare products.

If you've got a handful (or more) of batteries floating around your junk drawer, let this be your sign to finally take them to be recycled. Not only is it incredibly annoying to accidentally try to use an old one, but according to the EPA, batteries can be hazardous if improperly disposed of. Luckily, this doesn't involve a laborious trip out to a remote recycling center. You can drop off spent batteries in convenient locations at The Home Depot, Lowe's, and Staples. 

Too many toys are the biggest obstacle to keeping kid's drawers orderly. If the drawers in their bedroom or playroom are totally overwhelmed, it's time to declutter your kids' toys. Put everything in a pile, take stock of the toys your child has played with in the last few months, and donate the rest. This can also be a good time to get rid of any drum sets or singing robots that grandparents have (lovingly) dropped off on your door. You'll find the drawers are much easier to keep in order with less inventory to fit.